Bound by Honor, 1st in the Men of Honor series by SE Jakes who really has no periods in the initials, is an m/m erotic BDSM romance among military colleagues, free courtesy of publisher Samhain.

Currently free @ B&N (usually DRM-free) and Amazon UK, likely to drop in the main store and show up at Sony, since apparently Sony have made the gift list. I don't know why Samhain don't concurrently freebie these in their own webstore, but perhaps that'll be a future thing they do.

DescriptionA promise forces two men to bare themselves…completely.

One year ago on a mission gone wrong, Tanner James failed to save the life of Jesse, his Army Ranger teammate. Before dying in that South American jungle, Jesse extracted a promise that won’t let Tanner rest until it’s fulfilled—no matter what it costs him.

Damon Price loved Jesse, but problems in their relationship had come to a head right before Jesse left on his final mission. Now a reluctant Dom and a man still in mourning, he’s not happy when Tanner appears at his BDSM club. And even less happy with Jesse’s last request—that Tanner sub for him for one night.

After a rough start, Damon realizes that the tough soldier, despite his protests, aches for someone to take control. And Tanner senses a hesitance, an insecurity in Damon that makes him wonder if he’s simply a placeholder for Jesse, or if their tentative connection could grow into something more.

For Jesse’s sake, they agree to try one weekend together. Then duty calls, and a series of attacks that have been happening near the club hits too close to home, making both men wonder if giving their hearts is a maneuver fraught with too much risk…

Not every day I hear someone from Raleigh, NC talking about the CFL. What's your interest in/connection to Ricky Ray, if I may ask?

1) At the description!

2) I've been a CFL fan since I saw on Wide World of Sports (same day tape delay) the '62 Grey Cup (the Fog Bowl), and also noticed that many of the AFL's most exciting players were CFL alums.

My friends are surprised when I tell them that nowadays with the internet, it's easier for an American to be a fan of the CFL than of any other league.

a) There are only eight teams to keep track of.
b) There are more CFL newspaper articles on the web than a normal person can read.
c) The radio broadcasts are live on the web, for free.
d) The games are played at different times, so you never need to miss one.
e) Once the game is over, TSN puts its broadcast on the web for anyone who missed it.

By the way, both the Ticats' owner Bob Young and Als coach Marc Trestman live in Raleigh as well.

2) I've been a CFL fan since I saw on Wide World of Sports (same day tape delay) the '62 Grey Cup (the Fog Bowl), and also noticed that many of the AFL's most exciting players were CFL alums.

Oddly enough, I became a big fan during the U.S. expansion era. I still have a few TV shirts from that era (Shreveport Pirates, Baltimore CFL Colts, etc.). But I first really became aware of the CFL when Doug Flutie played in B.C. There was a star who transcended his league as strongly as Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzky did. Of course, I wasn't alive in '62, so I've only seen the Fog Bowl in highlights. Neat to run into a fan from down South.

The CFL, I believe, was the first league to have all of its regular season games broadcast on regular and/or cable television (ie. none reserved for pay per view). Heck, because of this the league uses the broadcast booth (in partnership with the CBC and TSN) for instant replays! Amazing to think that the 100th awarding of the Grey Cup is coming up (the Fog Bowl would have been the 50th, I guess?). The Super Bowl's the new kid on the block in comparison to that kind of history.

Now you've got me wondering if there are any e-books of CFL history, I'd buy one of those in a heartbeat. It's got a colourful history.

EDIT: I did find one, the story of Bob Ackles rising from BC Lions waterboy to BC Lions President/CEO (with stops in the NFL and XFL along the way).

scrapking, I've been to four Grey Cups - '78, '79, '85 and '96. The '96 game in Hamilton was a glorious game in the snow!

I went to a couple of Birmingham Barracudas games in '95, and I went to the first Baltimore CFL Colts game in '94. Had a ball every time.

Whenever I go to Ontario, I always try to take in an Argos or Ticats game (it's been a number of years, though, since I've been up your way). And back in the day when the Rough Riders were still around, I always sat on the South Side, which meant something to the Ottawa people, though I'm not sure what. The South Side had the upper deck, which was my reason.

scrapking, I've been to four Grey Cups - '78, '79, '85 and '96. The '96 game in Hamilton was a glorious game in the snow!

I'm envious. I live on Vancouver Island, so going to a BC Lions game is a big production for me (ferries, hotels, etc.) so I don't do it often. In fact, I've done it exactly twice: once to see Shreveport play at BC, and once to see Saskatchewan play at BC. Both times the home team won, and it was a great time. If I lived in Vancouver I'd likely have season tickets, but as it is it's neither cost effective nor practical.

Last year's Grey Cup weekend in BC was pretty exciting apparently, one of my staff got to go (he has friends over there he can stay with, making it a lot easier).

I'm envious. I live on Vancouver Island, so going to a BC Lions game is a big production for me (ferries, hotels, etc.) so I don't do it often...

I understand, of course. But when I went to Birmingham to see the Barracudas, I lived in Atlanta, two hours away.

By the way, the Lions are getting some good players from the Argos. Any time a player moves from one of those teams to the other, it doesn't look good. I think they should have the self-discipline to abstain from doing that.

I'd gladly travel two hours and back to see a game. The ferry trip alone is 1.5 hours, but realistically more than two hours from when you arrive at the terminal on one side, to when you're departing on the hour side, to say nothing of the 45 drive to the ferry (leaving leeway in case the ferry's heavily booked) and driving to Vancouver on the other side. I'd say 4+ hours each way by car, and I would probably take the bus instead which might make it a little longer.

But it's more the cost than the inconvenience, as the hotel cost is an impediment, as is finding a dog sitter.

"they should have the self-discipline to abstain" - do you mean "they" the teams, or "they" the players?

I agree that they should hold off on such trades, no question. Especially since both teams won't be owned by the same person forever.

Caravatta is great. Do you normally watch the TSN broadcasts? I do like Dave Randorf and the team there (I grew up watching Dave Randorf as one of the personalities on a local sports new programme called Sports Page).

Until a couple of weeks ago, I used a computer which I bought in 2002, and its chip was not powerful enough to watch streaming video. I now have a refurb with Windows 7 and a dual core processor, so I was able to watch the Super Bowl on the internet. Hurray!

I look forward to watching tsn.ca's video streaming of the CFL games. Unfortunately, that video streaming is carried live on the website only in Canada, so the rest of us must wait until the game is over. I'm a fan of radio, and I have been quite content to listen to the radio broadcasts of all the teams.

I don't think that I've seen a CFL television broadcast since 2001, so I'm afraid I can't comment on what TSN is doing now; but it appears to me that in a general sense they have been an excellent partner of the league. However, I do believe as a matter of principle that the Grey Cup should be shown on broadcast TV, whether CTV or CBC.